And, oh yeah… I should probably say something about the show as well, shouldn’t I?

It is now just two and a half weeks until this year’s Southwest Show, which will be taking place at the Webbington Hotel, its home since the first one took place all the way back in 1998. With there having been no show one year – I believe in 2000 – that makes this the twentieth Southwest Show.

The RISC OS Southwest Show this year took place on 25th February – so this show report sets quite a record for the time between the event and its appearance at just under seven months. Unfortunately, this is a reflection of the amount of time I’ve had available in that intervening period to sit down and write the report. Which is to say: very little.

To make matters slightly worse, I usually refer to the photos I’ve taken at the show as a means to remind myself of who was there, what they were demonstrating, and so on – and this year, I forgot to take my camera. I did take a few pictures with my phone, but I really don’t like my phone as a camera (it’s perfectly capable, it’s just the way it has to be held, etc.) and therefore only have a few pictures.Continue reading »

With yet another successful Southwest Show disappearing in the rear view mirror (report coming soon…ish), and the Wakefield Show now looming on the horizon, there has been a small amount of behind the scenes discussion about issues surrounding the RISC OS shows in general.

With a nod towards the potential hurdles setting up network attached storage for those less technically inclined, and another towards the need to have good backups (which many people to this day still fail to do), R-Comp will be launching a two disc RAID mirrored storage solution for RISC OS users on Saturday. Bundles will be available consisting of the RAID solution, and SafeStore 2, the company’s backup software.

Related to this, the company will be announcing disc partitioning support for ARMX6 at the show – which allows multiple partitions to be set up on larger discs, something that is common on other platforms, but which has been sadly lacking on RISC OS.

That’s just seven days – so few you can count ’em on the fingers of, er, one and a bit hands!

In a week’s time, a large contingent of the RISC OS community – hardware and software developers, businesses, hobbyist programmers and, of course, general users – will be converging on a hotel in a rather nice setting on the Mendip Hills for the first main event of the year: RISC OS Southwest, organised by R-Comp‘s Andrew Rawnsley and Orpheus Internet‘s Richard Brown.

The hotel is, of course, the Webbington, which has hosted the Southwest Show since its inception in 1998, and the doors will be open to the public from 10:30 until 4:00pm, with an entry fee of (I believe – it isn’t specified on the show website) £5.00.Continue reading »

For anyone living at the event horizon of a black hole, and who is therefore less aware of the passage of time than most, the Southwest Show – the first show of 2016 – will be taking place in just a few days time, on Saturday, 27th February.Continue reading »

It’s like social networking but, like, actually being there. With other people.

The Wakefield and Bristol user groups have both announced their next meetings, with the Wakefield group having a guest speaker, and the Bristol group being an informal drink and chat as usual.Continue reading »

The most rubber-dated show in the RISC OS calendar, the RISC OS Southwest Show, took place this year just one week ago, on 21st February, 2015 – and it was a busy show, well attended by both visitors and exhibitors.

As usual, the event took place at the Webbington Hotel, Loxton, Somerset, on the side of Crook Peak in the Mendip Hills – a location which, while a touch harder to get to than most shows, is one which is undeniably scenic, with fantastic walking behind and above the venue, and splendid views from in front.Continue reading »